Come Around

Rian let himself into the girls' house without knocking. He walked into the living room to find Cassie curled up on the couch with the TV on and her fingers flying across her phone's keyboard.

After sliding her phone to it's normal position, she looked over at Rian and smiled, "Hey. What brings you here, my friend?" she asked, "Angie's not here. She went into the office."

"I know," he said, "I came to see you."

She smiled at her friend, "Oh, and you didn't even call. To what do I owe this pleasant surprise?"

Rian shrugged, "I just wanted to see if you're okay."

"I'm great," she said, motioning for Rian to have a seat. "Just enjoying some time to myself. It doesn't seem to happen very often anymore."

"So, you're not mad at Alex?" he asked.

"No," she said cautiously, "Why would I be?"

"Well, you like him, right?"

Cassie raised an eyebrow, "Is this a trick question?" she asked.

Rian sighed, "He ditched you for another girl last night."

"No he didn't," she said, very clearly confused, "Who told you that?"

"He did. When he finally came home, I asked where he disappeared to last night and he said that a cute girl asked him to go home with her and he couldn't refuse. Which would mean..." he paused, "Hold on, did he come here last night?"

Cassie laughed, "Yes he did," she said, "I need to tell you something."

"If you're going to tell me that you had sex with him, I don't want to hear it."

She laughed again, "Calm down, I didn't have sex with Alex last night. I was just going to say that I decided to take a chance on him. I know you don't want me to, but I would really like it if you could be supportive of my decision," she said.

Rian was quiet for a minute and just stared at the floor, "You like him a lot, don't you?" he asked quietly.

"I really do."

"He's a handful, you know. Two handfuls sometimes," he said.

"I know."

"He listens to crappy music. He can't focus on anything for too long. He's loud and messy and he smells," Rian babbled.

She laughed, "You're not going to talk me out of this, Rian."

"I was afraid of that," he said, sighing quietly, "Okay, well, I haven't seen him go after anyone the way or as long as he's been after you in awhile. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen him pursue a girl for this long. So maybe it'll be different."

Cassie smiled, "We can only hope," she said.

"Alright," he said leaning over to hug Cassie, "I'll support your decision."

She hugged him back tightly, "Thank you. I hope you know how much that means to me," she said and he nodded, "And don't worry, you're still my favorite."

"I better be," he said, laughing.

He let go of his friend and watched the TV. Next to him, Cassie was playing with her phone again. When she finished, she put her phone away and leaned on Rian, resting her head on his shoulder. He rested his head against hers and they watched TV in silence.

When the show ended, Cassie flipped channels, not finding much worth watching. Refusing to accept defeat, she turned on the History channel and dropped the remote into her lap.

"You guys go into the studio this week, don't you?" she asked during a commercial.

Rian nodded, "Yeah. It's about time, too."

"I guess you guys are going to be pretty busy then," she said.

"Yeah, probably. You can actually go to work again," he said, laughing.

Cassie hit him lightly and laughed also, "I do go to work. Just not as much as Angie. I can do a lot of stuff from home."

"Whatever," he said, "We all know you're a slacker."

She rolled her eyes and changed the subject, "How would you feel about going on a double date?"

"Ooh. I'm not sure about that. It might be weird," he said.

"Why?"

He sighed, "Because it's going to take a little while for me to get used to the idea of you and Alex."

"Trying to avoid being around us at the same time isn't going to make it any easier, Rian. You might as well just jump right in," she said.

"What if I catch him looking at another girl?" he asked,

Cassie shrugged, "Who cares? He can look. He just can't touch."

"You would really be okay with that?"

"Well, I mean, obviously if he's being disrespectful and staring at another girl, then I'm going to have a problem with it. But he's going to look, regardless, and there's no reason to get upset," she said.

Rian stared at Cassie in disbelief and all she could do was laugh. The front door opened and he finally looked away from her and saw Angie walk in the room.

"Hey you," he said, his forehead scrunching when he saw the look on her face, "You okay?" he asked.

She fell onto the chair and sighed, "I'm fine. I'm just frustrated that Justin hated all of my design ideas for the website's makeover that he asked me to do. Now I have to come up with something else, and I'm out of ideas."

"Justin's such a shit head," Cassie said.

Angie nodded, "Oh yeah, he wanted me to tell you that you need to go into the office on Monday because he needs to talk to you about something."

"And he couldn't call me because...?" she asked.

"Who knows with him," Angie said, obviously irritated.

Cassie sighed, "Well, it would appear that you need some cheering up. How about going on a double date?" she asked.

"Sure," she said, "Sounds like fun."

After Cassie made sure Alex wasn't busy, Angie told Rian he didn't have a say in the matter. The two headed to the restaurant while Cassie went to pick up Alex. He was waiting outside when she got there.

"Is everything okay?" she asked as he got into the car.

"Yeah," he said, leaning over and kissing her, "I just didn't want you to have to wait."

She smiled and pulled out of the driveway. It was a short drive to the restaurant soon they were parked and walking toward the doors.

Alex stopped before the went inside, "Rian is really okay with this?" he asked.

"He took it surprisingly well," Cassie said, "He was a little unsure about a double date, but Angie made him come."

"I just don't want it to be awkward," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Oh, stop being a baby. It's like you two have forgotten that you're friends," she said, taking Alex's hand and pulling him into the restaurant.

She easily found her friends and slid into the booth across the table from them. Alex sat next to her. He could already feel the tension in the air, but did the best he could to ignore it.

Conversation was strained at first. Cassie noticed Rian occasionally shooting a look at Alex. When she'd had enough, she kicked Rian under the table and gave him a look that told him to play nice. The girls did everything they could to have a general conversation that included everyone and it wasn't long before the boys both relaxed noticeably.

When Alex's arm found it's way around Cassie, Rian tensed slightly. Angie and Cassie both gave him a look and he looked sheepishly at the table for a second before taking a deep breath. The girls kept the mood light and by the end of dinner, Rian and Alex seemed to be their old selves again.